Cuban Cigar Makers Anticipate Big Bucks From US Travelers

HAVANA (CBSMiami/AP) — Amid the U.S. and Cuba’s new push to normalize relations, Cuban cigar makers are expecting a boom in their business.

Over six decades rolling premium cigars with his small, wrinkled hands, Arnaldo Alfonso has taken pride in seeing his “habanos” sampled by visiting heads of state and other dignitaries.

Now he’s delighted by the idea of customers lighting them up in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the United States, where Cuban cigars have been outlawed since the U.S. embargo took effect in 1962.

“It’s a very beautiful thought,” said a smiling Alfonso, a 78-year-old worker at the tobacco shop of the Palco Hotel in western Havana.

Cuban cigar makers are licking their chops over new U.S. rules, announced in December as part of a partial detente, allowing more Americans to travel to the island and legally bring back small…